The Order of Seating

Like so many things in this life that at first seem rather obvious, the very act of sitting oneself down is fraught with opportunities to transgress against the social niceties that form a barrier between ourselves and a completely barbarian state of existence.  Therefore, herein is listed a vitally necessary nugget of social gold in the form of the Order of Precedence of Seating, without which people might sit willy nilly, as they chose, causing offence and social upheaval on all sides.  It would be tantamount to below-stairs servants appearing above-stairs without due cause, thereby causing the collapse of society as we know it.  Fear not, Gentle Reader, for the actual process is simplicity itself.

The order is as follows;

Guests, ladies first

Associate Members of the Society, ladies first

Ladies of the Regiment

Nursing Corps:

• Head Nurse
• Senior Nurses
• Nurses
• Junior Nurses
• Nurse Aides

The Regiment:

• Senior Officer
• Adjutant
• Other Officers in rank order
• NCO’s in rank order
• Privates
• Recruits 1st Class
• Recruits 2nd Class




Please note the latter three classes may sit together to avoid unnecessary confusion.  However, in practice the most senior Private, as delineated by Regimental Number, will sit first

It should be noted that a repeated pause in one’s sitting to make the point of one’s position in the order of things is neither clever nor necessary, merely crass.  Poor form, Gentle Reader, poor form indeed.

Within the layers of civilians, there may well be present those of greater or lesser social rank, and one must rely upon their knowing their place and sitting accordingly, with grace and aplomb.

Simplicity itself, and quite the thing of beauty to see when it becomes automatic, persons rising and falling like a finely honed Engine of Industry as required by the needs of the occasion.